Are You in SHAPE for 2023?

Are you in SHAPE to lead or influence the modern digital-hybrid organisation?

As a leader or professional of influence, do you have:

SOUL:

Are you driven purely by money, property and/or prestige or do people experience you as primarily focused on creating real value for all your key stakeholders? Do you lead and act with soul? One of the champions of our Business Soul research programme, Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance at London Business School says:

"I would say soul is all about growing the pie. So how can we create additional value? Note that the pie is not solely financial wealth. The pie is also value to society. How can we use our expertise and our resources to solve new problems that we've never considered in the past? So, it’s also about moving from just fairness to innovation."

HEART:

Are you emotionally intelligent and connected to yourself and the people you need to influence? Do you put your heart and soul into your role? Another Business Soul champion, John Neill CBE, Chairman of Unipart Group said:

“It’s whether you believe that your responsibility is to help to grow and develop your people so they can create exciting solutions for your current and potential customers, so all your stakeholders ultimately benefit and prosper. And if you believe the latter, then you need to think about how you inspire people to want to continuously develop their skills and their capabilities to serve the business needs. Because that's what you're paying them to do, but also it can serve their own growth aspirations.”

ABILITY:

Are you clear on your strengths and how to best use them? Do you have the ability to communicate important priorities in a compelling way both online and in-person? A senior Innovation Executive in Telecoms said:

“I think when you're looking at leading virtual teams, especially, that element of soul is very important, because you have to bring your real self to work, you have to be, to a certain extent, transparent, and certainly, as a lot of people have said, the fish rots from the head. So, if you have a leader that isn't doing all of that, you're probably not going to have employees that are doing all of that.”

PERSONALITY:

Are you being your authentic self in how you deal with others or is your frightened ego trying to achieve significance by being someone else? Jim Collins, in Good to Great, identified the key characteristics of people who can inspire transformation: humility and fierce resolve. Collins himself says:

“Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. They're incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves. While Level 5 leaders can come in many personality packages, they are often self-effacing, quiet, reserved, and even shy. Every good-to-great transition in our research began with a Level 5 leader who motivated the enterprise more with inspired standards than inspiring personality.”

EXPERIENCES:

Do you know how to communicate important ideas in a way that grabs people and moves them? Our actions and behaviours are driven by our values and beliefs, which are created by our experiences. Changing behaviour often requires a shift in values/beliefs. Just trying to tell people what to do is unlikely to create any sustained engagement. Business Soul champion Tony Vickers-Byrne, CIPD's Chief Adviser for HR Practice and Public Health England's first HR Director says:

“I’ve seen leaders come into organisations and changing things very quickly by telling people how it really is, giving the facts of the situation. They often stress the importance of equality and fairness. The title Senior Manager is just a name badge, not a guarantee that they will be respected respect or engage their teams. Great CEO’s have courage and personality and a willingness to engage with all their staff. Culture change doesn’t have to take a long time when you have someone who is true to themselves, who communicates the priorities clearly, who faces opposition but can change people’s previous practices around.”

Soul, Heart, Ability, Personality and Experience. Are you in SHAPE for these challenging times?

From the transcripts our business soul research programme that featured the input of over 100 champions, we created a book called The Mindful Communicator: a handbook for getting the most out of life in the digital age.

Our intention was to create a range of practices to help everyone working and living in a digital-hybrid working world, to be able to add value successfully and happily.

Thanks to John M Neill, Chairman of Unipart Group for this lovely review:

“I’ve always thought that if you can get just one good idea from a book is worth reading… this one has lots of practical ideas you can use straight away by seeing the world through both an analogue and digital lens….happy reading."

November is launch month for my new book: The Mindful Communicator, published by Soul Corporations®. It’s available NOW on Amazon. You can order a copy here: https://lnkd.in/e49P2y8i